Should a cat's collar have a bell?

Yes, partly. Cats Protection's advice says research by the RSPB has shown that attaching a bell to a cat's collar can reduce the number of birds a cat catches. It doesn't stop hunting — some cats learn to move without ringing it — but it gives prey a warning that a silent stalk doesn't.

In the best-known UK trial of bells, in 2002, owners of 89 cats around the UK swapped between collars. Wearing a bell, the cats brought home 41% fewer birds and 34% fewer mammals than with a plain collar (Nelson and others, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 2005). An electronic sonic device did a little better, with 51% fewer birds.

If your main worry is garden birds, a bell is one of several things that help. Keeping your cat in at dawn and dusk, when birds feed, and putting feeders where there is no cover to stalk from, do at least as much.

Cats Protection is equally clear that bells and other collar accessories can be hazardous, because they get caught or trapped in small gaps such as between fence panels. A cat hooked by its collar and unable to pull free is in real danger.

That is why the collar underneath matters more than the bell on it. A quick-release or snap-opening collar pops apart under pressure and lets the cat go. If you want a bell, put it on one of those, and check your cat can't get a claw stuck inside the bell itself.

Elasticated collars were once sold as the safe option and are now understood to be the opposite. A cat that gets a leg through the stretch can't get it back out, and the collar ends up under a foreleg, cutting into the armpit. Cats Protection advises against them. Quick-release is the design to look for.

• Two fingers, comfortably, between the collar and the neck — the same check as a dog, and Cats Protection's own wording.
• Re-check an hour later. Cats flatten their fur when a collar first goes on, and it often needs a notch tighter afterwards.
• Check again every few weeks, and any time your cat gains or loses weight.
• Take the collar off if you see any rubbing, bald patches or soreness, and give the skin time to recover.

A collar earns its risk by getting your cat home. Since June 2024 in England, cats over 20 weeks old must be microchipped, but a chip only works once someone catches the cat and gets it to a vet or a rescue. A tag works in the street, in the hands of the neighbour who found it. Our cat microchipping law guide covers the legal side.

Keep the tag light and flat so it doesn't swing and snag. A QR code cat tag holds everything a finder needs — your pet's photo, your notes and a private way to message you — without your phone number or address being readable on a lost cat's collar, which is a trade-off worth thinking about. More on that in are QR pet tags safe.

Start indoors, for ten minutes at a time, with food or a game running at the same time so the collar predicts something good. Many cats soon stop noticing it. If yours genuinely can't settle with one, a microchip plus keeping them in at night is a reasonable fallback — and if they go missing, work through our lost cat checklist straight away.